Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” programming block gave us so much groundbreaking TV, and we’re still feeling the effects of it today, as creators who got their big break with Adult Swim moved on to create other iconic media.
One of the most subversive things AS ever did was a series of “infomercials” that would air late at night or early in the morning. These were not cartoons that happened to appeal to adults—oh no! Created to look like real advertising or promotional material, things started off pretty normal, but would subtly go off the rails and end up deep in the realm of surrealism. If you were coming home late at night and just sitting in front of the TV half-asleep, well, this was the closest thing to a walking fever dream you could have! So I thought I’d dig up some old memories, or maybe introduce some new folks to these gems. I have such sights to show you.
The videos below are designed to be absurd, disturbing, and might not be for everyone. While some have mildly graphic content, this is generally so cartoonish that its impact is pretty much gone. Nonetheless, if you are a sensitive viewer, you may want to stick to reading the descriptions first, before deciding to press play.
This is one of the best examples of how the Adult Swim segments can catch you out. Imagine you turn on the TV and you see some footage of a bear, it looks like nature photography, nothing strange. Then an advert comes on for cold medicine, the same stuff you see all the time. It’s about a mom who takes cold medicine, and it helps her keep it together so she can take care of her kids.
But then, the ad doesn’t end. We just follow the mom driving home as she happens upon a tragic scene, and from there it becomes an almost pitch-perfect little 10-minute horror movie.
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This House Has People in It—Creepy Domestic Surveillance
Personally, this is probably my favorite of all the Adult Swim skits, and the the premise is so simple, but the results are terrifying. It plays out like a found-footage film. Think The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity.
We see household surveillance footage of a family preparing for a little boy’s birthday party, and the conversations seem pretty normal, as a technician works to fix something in the basement. The only strange thing is a young woman on the kitchen floor, apparently being ignored by everyone else.
Eventually, the (I assume) mom and dad start addressing the girl on the floor, but she’s unresponsive, and soon something pretty supernatural starts happening just as guests begin to arrive. The whole house quickly devolves into a state of panic, and the resolution at the end is truly disturbing. It’s a masterful piece of horror.
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Swords, Knives, Very Sharp Objects and Cutlery—Action!
This is one of the most pitch-perfect examples of the Adult Swim 4AM infomercial. I’ve seen plenty of legitimate infomercials that look just like this, with a sleepy host trying to sell cheap junk to callers suffering from insomnia.
It starts off tame enough, but soon creepy callers and a whole squad of military ninjas showing up turn it into a gory martial-arts action film with the best type of camp. Sadly, it’s a little spoiled now because some of the actors in this have become well-known in the intervening years, but you can imagine what this would be like to see at 4AM if you had no idea who any of these people are.
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Cool Dad—Round and Round We Go
It used to be perfectly normal to see advertisements for movies that were coming to home video at odd hours on TV, and at first, Cool Dad looks like exactly the sort of quirky 90s comedy we all loved to watch back in the day. They really perfectly emulated the look and feel of these movies and their trailers.
I can imagine waking up in front of my TV, seeing this trailer, and just accepting it as a movie that I might want to see. But then, the trailer runs again, except a little differently, and again, as the consequences of each version compound again and again.
Cool Dad is much more funny than horrifying, but it does really nail the surreal aspect of it all, as the logic of these films falls apart and the whimsy turns into something much darker.
There are many more of these on the Adult Swim YouTube channel, but be warned that the examples I put up there are some of the mildest. So if you do go down that rabbit hole, expect to find some incredible stuff, but it comes with more intense content. If you’re OK with that, and enjoy bizarre TV, you’re in for a great time.
